Back to the Labyrinth
by Lamia Amici
Summary: Its been two years since Sarah had left the Goblin King, but he has never left her.  At night he sends her dreams.  Now in the daytime he gives her a choice.  He will come and invade her world unless she comes to him.  Which will she choose?
1. Chapter 1

Tossing and turning in twisted sheets while dark images of dancing figures crowd behind my closed eyelids.

I sat up with a jerk feeling my heart beating too fast and my night gown sticking to me. It was just a dream I told myself shakily. It had been over two years since I had ventured forth into the Labyrinth to save my baby brother Toby, but Jareth had never really left me. The Goblin King haunted my waking thoughts and my dreams when I slept. I feared that I'd never be rid of him.

"You're no match for me, Sarah." Rippled through my head, as though he were standing before me with his strangely hypnotic eyes: one brown and one green eye. If there was one thing I absolutely would never forget, it would be his eyes.

"Sarah are you alright?" I looked over at my roommate who was looking at me with a worried expression. "It was the dreams again wasn't it?" She sat up throwing her legs over the side of the bed and sliding on her slippers. She made her way across the cold room to my bed and sat on the edge of it. "Sarah, I know I haven't known you very long, but these dreams you have cannot be normal." I shook my hair out of my eyes and nodded. "You're right," I said thoughtfully, "they aren't normal. I've been having the same dreams for two years now." I sat up in bed and looked out the frost covered window. It was fall still, but in the night it got very chilly.

"Sarah?" My roommate asked looking even more worried. I smiled at her. "Don't worry about me Rachel. Surely, I'll be fine. Look the sun is beginning to rise. We should get ready for class." Rachel nodded glad to be doing something to get her mind off of my dreams. She doesn't even know the half of it. If I told her what they were about, she'd really be worried. I grabbed my shower shoes and my towel and toiletry bag and headed down the hall to the showers. It was early yet so they were still empty. I loved having the showers all to myself. I stepped into the scalding hot water willing it to take the chill from my bones and to wipe away the last remnants of my dream. I'd heard his voice in my head over and over again singing to me. It was how I fell asleep most nights.

"Sarah?" I heard his voice whisper through me, "Let me rule you and you can have everything that your heart desires." He had said these words to me right before I destroyed his world and left taking my little brother Toby with me. I felt bad destroying his world and hurting him, for I knew by the end of my quest that what I'd said in the beginning was true. He had fallen in love with me, and I'd be lying to say that I didn't care for him.

I turned off the shower and wrapped up in my towel. I grabbed my toiletry bag and was leaving the bathroom when there he was in the mirror. "Sarah." He called out to me. I turned and ran as fast as I could from the bathroom. I ran into my room just as Rachel was heading out. She must have seen the panicked expression on my face, for she stopped and asked me what the matter was. "Nothing," I said quickly plastering a smile onto my face. She nodded looking somewhat convinced and went to take her shower. I looked in the mirror on the bedroom door and he was standing there waiting for me.

I looked down at the towel that was covering my body. "What do you want Jareth?" I demanded. "Do you want to drive me crazy? Because that is what you do to me when you send me these dreams and your voice. Tell me why you do this?" I approached the mirror. He looked at me with a great sadness and yearning in his eyes. "Sarah, you destroyed my world. Now I'm bringing my world to yours. It will start slowly at first, but one day soon my kingdom will rule your world, unless you come to me." I froze in my approach to the mirror. That was all the invitation he needed. I watched disbelieving as he stepped through my mirror as if it were a door and who's to say it wasn't. He approached me like one would approach a wild animal slowly and cautiously.

"Jareth." I whispered. This was my nightmare come true. My secret wish come true. I knew how he felt for me, but I couldn't allow myself to be so easily drawn back into his world. I turned my back from him. "Go away Jareth, please." I begged I could hear the tears in my voice. I hated sounding weak in front of anyone let alone him. The instant his hand touched my shoulder, I could feel all the feelings I'd been suppressing for the last two years come crashing down on me in a tidal wave of emotion. I turned into the warmth of his touch how could I not? My mind screamed no at me, but my body wasn't hearing it. His head descended to meet my own, and we just stared at each other breathing in the same air before he closed the distance and kissed me.


	2. Chapter 2

I could hear the door opening behind Jareth and me, but I didn't care that Rachel was about to walk in on me making out with someone that she thought was a figment of my imagination. "Sarah, what are you doing?" She asked sounding as shocked as I felt. Jareth moved away from me so that I could see Rachel. My blush was all the answer I could give.

Jareth seeing I was at a loss for words turned around and bowed showing her his goblin charm. "I don't believe we've met, my dear. My name is Jareth, and I am Sarah's betrothed." She looked bewildered at me. That's when I started blinking rapidly, coming out of the haze that the Goblin King had put me under. "We aren't betrothed," I told Rachel pushing past Jareth to look her in the eye, "and he was just leaving." I turned to glare at him. He didn't look ashamed by his lie. "As you wish." He said smiling and dissolved into white feathers, feathers as white as the owl he turned into.

This proved to be too much for Rachel and she fainted. I looked at the clock to make sure we weren't going to be late for class to see that no time had passed at all between my dream and my encounter with the Goblin King. I scowled at my clock and went over to the pile of feathers. The feathers had to go before my roommate woke up, so I picked them up and shoved them into one of my pillow cases.

"Why are you trying to hide me from the world, Sarah?" His voice was amused, but I could detect that he was hurt as well. I didn't respond. This way of communicating with him was just far too intimate for my liking. "Sarah, I'll give you thirteen days in which to decide the fate of the world. Such a pity." With that, I could feel that he had truly gone from my mind. Now the question was, could I live with myself if I let him come and take over the mortal world? Would I be able to sacrifice myself for everyone I knew and didn't know? The answer was yes. I was not selfish enough to let the whole world suffer. Even if I didn't choose to go to him, he'd come here. He'd find me and take me anyways.

Jareth

"Why does she still fight me?" I asked musing to myself as I sat in my throne room. The goblins were fast asleep. I sighed inwardly; sleep was a luxury that refused to come to me as of late. All I could think about was her. She invaded my every thought. I died that day that she denied me. And for what? For the safety and love of her little step brother Toby.

With a great sigh I heaved myself up out of my chair. It had been two years since she had come to this place. My castle had never felt so empty. My imagination changed the castle often just as it changed the labyrinth. This was a world of my own creation. I could have anything I wanted, except for her.

I looked out the window at the moon hanging over the labyrinth. It all seemed so peaceful at night, yet it would be filled with Goblins come morning. I smiled down at the crystals I had in my hand and blew them out the window. I sent her dreams every night. Haunting dreams, dreams of what happened and could happen if only she'd surrender to me. I had offered her her dreams at one time and the offer still stood.

The dream I sent her tonight was of the Labyrinth. She wore a white dress with sleeves that hung down off of her arms and a garland of flowers in her hair. She ran through the labyrinth constantly searching for something. She would turn the corner, and there I'd be. She would stop and just stair up into my eyes helplessly before turning around and running into me again.

"Please, let me go." She whispered fearfully. I moved towards her slowly. "Sarah, everyone else has reason to fear me, but not you, never you." I placed my hand on her cheek unable to stop myself from touching her. She moved her face into my palm. "Jareth, I do fear you." It broke my heart to hear these words come from her. "You are going to take me away from my family, that or impose yourself on the rest of humanity. If you try to impose yourself on humanity….. They'd…." Her voice was pained when she stopped. "What, my love, what would they do?" I tilted her head, so I could gaze deeply into her eyes. "They'd kill you. They would never allow someone as alien as you to rule them."

I watched as a single tear escaped from her eyes and pulled her into my embrace. "Don't cry my love, this is but a dream. We can do anything we want in a dream. Let's not waste it on tears." I kissed her then. A hot steamy kiss intended to leave her weak in my assault on her. I would have been lying to myself if I said I didn't love her, if I didn't want her.

She kissed me back just as passionately allowing me a glimpse into how she really felt about me. "Sarah, come stay with me. Be mine, let me rule you, love me, and you can have anything your heart desires. Be my queen, please." It came out rather breathy when we came up for air. I leaned down to kiss her once more trying to persuade her with my kisses. She responded just as I wanted her to. By the end of our kisses it was me who broke it off. She was breathing hard and tried to reach for me again, but I decided to leave her wanting more and sent her out of the dream.

Sarah

I woke from the dream with a start, sitting straight up in bed. My heart was beating hard from our kisses. My lips felt swollen under my cool fingertips. Damn him! How could he affect me the way he did? I flopped back onto my pillows making a few feathers of his come out of one of them. I gathered them in my hands and fell back to sleep with them pressed against my heart.


End file.
